Although they (South Vietnam's military leaders in 1965) were warned that America would stand for no more, that they could not toy with a great power like this, that American support was becoming more difficult, they did not believe it. They had already learned that the worse things got and the more the Americans threatened them with disengagement, the more the Americans coughed up; that they had sunk the hook deeper into the Americans than the Americans had sunk it into them. As if to convince them that for all the fury, it would be business as usual, (U.S. Ambassador Maxwell) Taylor said as they were leaving, "You people have broken a lot of dishes and now we have to see how we can straighten out this mess."